Library Privileges

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LETTER FROM VATICAN CITY about the Vatican Library. The Vatican Library collection was started in 1451 by Pope Nicholas V, who sent emissaries throughout the world to collect manuscripts that had survived the Dark Ages. Over time, the library built up a collection of 150,000 rare manuscripts, including many founding documents of world civilization, and it also built up a reputation for jealously guarding its treasures from outsiders. Its cloistered atmosphere persisted until 1984, when Father Leonard Boyle, an Irish Dominican priest, was appointed its prefect. A renowned scholar of medieval Latin texts, Father Boyle has computerized the library's card catalogue, rewired the main reading room for laptops, hired women for the first time, relaxed the dress code, and refurbished the cafe. When the writer first met Father Boyle, in 1995, he showed him the prototype for a CD-ROM to lead one on a virtual tour of the library. This was part of a much larger joint venture, with I.B.M., to digitize every page of the Vatican's collection. Last May, Boyle was suddenly and unceremoniously sacked by the Vatican. The writer thinks this was done to discredit Boyle because the Vatican establishment disliked his attempts to open up the library and modernize it; but it also reflected concern over Boyle's questionable business deals, which have landed the Vatican in a terrible legal tangle. In 1988, he assigned exclusive worldwide rights to the images in the library to a California businesswoman named Elaine Peconi, who planned to license an array of books, jewelry, clothing, souvenirs, film, and CD-ROMs. Boyle did not know that she had recently filed for bankruptcy, or that Leroy Carver III, an investor she brought into the project, had owned a failed savings and loan. Eventually, the whole matter wound up in court in California: after 6 years of litigation, the Vatican settled the case for $8.8 million, plus $1.3 million in attorney's fees. Born in Donegal, Ireland, in 1923, Boyle attended Oxford, and between 1956 and 1984, taught Latin paleography in Rome and Toronto, publishing numerous books and articles, and becoming an expert on the Vatican collection. It was Boyle's predecessor, Cardinal Alfons Stickler, who, in 1981, first introduced him to Peconi. In 1988, Stickler gave Peconi the authority to act as his agent in securing a licensing contract with the library. Boyle was the Vatican's legal representative in its ventures with Peconi, but he paid little attention to the details of the business. In April, 1990, Peconi's investment partner, Leroy Carver III, sued the new Vatican company, Cortile del Belvedere, on the grounds that Boyle had given Peconi $1.5 million of Carver's money, which Peconi had used to buy herself a new home. Boyle maintains that he gave Peconi the money as a loan, with no knowledge of how she intended to use it. The Vatican accused Boyle of acting without authorization, which he denied. A few months after the Vatican settled the case, Boyle was asked to step down. Three weeks before Boyle's departure date in May of 1997, the Vatican carried out a police blitz on the library, and declared all the library's contracts with Peconi and her licensing subcontracts null and void. Peconi then sued the Vatican for fraud and breach of contract. Despite the lengthy litigation, however, Cortile del Belvedere had become profitable, with millions going to the Vatican. By shutting down the company, the Vatican has shut off this source of funds to the library, and also set off a 2nd round of litigation, which could cost millions more. Monsignor Francesco Salerno, a legal expert in the Vatican's Office of Economic Affairs, was charged with reorganizing the library's business and defenestrating Boyle. He also tried to reach a settlement with Peconi, but Boyle had signed a new contract with her in 1994 which extended her control over library licensing to the year 2024, with the option for another 30-year renewal after that. The Vatican's rough treatment of Boyle appears to be part of a legal strategy to paint him as a rogue priest, so that it can disown the contracts he signed. Lost in the controversy is the fact that Boyle succeeded in fulfilling his grand vision for the Vatican Library.